Senate Bill No. 856
Public Act No. 15-34
AN ACT CONCERNING LANGUAGE INTERPRETERS IN HOSPITALS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:
Section 1. Section 19a-490i of the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective October 1, 2015):
Each acute care hospital in this state shall:
(1) Develop and annually review a policy on the provision of interpreter services to non-English-speaking patients;
(2) Ensure [, to the extent possible,] the availability of interpreter services to patients whose primary language is spoken by a group comprising not less than five per cent of the population residing in the geographic area served by the hospital;
(3) Prepare and maintain a list of qualified interpreters;
(4) Notify hospital staff of the requirement to provide interpreters to non-English-speaking patients;
(5) Post multilingual notices of the availability of interpreters to non-English-speaking patients;
(6) Review standardized forms to determine the need for translation for use by non-English-speaking patients;
(7) Consider providing hospital staff with picture and phrase sheets for communication with non-English-speaking patients; and
(8) Establish liaisons to non-English-speaking communities in the geographic area served by the hospital.